The Booksellers
Greenwich Entertainment | Release Date: March 6, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 4, 2020
The Booksellers is a documentary for people who treasure the sheer look and feel of books. It is for anyone who has ever spent way too much time in used and rare bookstores teetering on tall ladders or squeezing through narrow, tome-filled aisles in search of that most precious of commodities: the book you didn’t know you needed until you found it – or, to be more precise, it found you. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJul 10, 2020
DW Young’s film, a study of New York’s independent and antiquarian booksellers, looks to have modelled itself on that aimless pleasure. Never aspiring to anything like a structure, it meanders from shelf to shelf, sometimes picking up a volume and placing it straight down, sometimes leafing more carefully through the pages. Read full review
80
EmpirePamela HutchinsonJun 29, 2020
Unputdownable documentary that evokes the thrill of reading preloved pages and reveals that a passion for collecting is not just a hoarding instinct, but a way to preserve and share culture.  Read full review
80
The New York TimesJennifer SzalaiMar 5, 2020
Charming. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughApr 9, 2020
Will print books ultimately disappear, replaced by digital versions? The ever-entertaining and insightful Fran Lebowitz offers anecdotal evidence to the contrary. She notes that on the subway she sees many people in their 20s reading actual books. So perhaps there is hope a new generation will revive the bound medium. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyMar 12, 2020
The lack of clear identification of interview subjects and amorphous shape of the film can be frustrating. A segment on the history of book-burning, for example, feels gratuitous but, for the record, everyone in the film is against it. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Mark MedleyMar 12, 2020
I am, admittedly, its ideal viewer – I own enough books to last me several lifetimes – but that doesn’t change the fact that The Booksellers is a lovely documentary – contemplative and captivating. I finished the film and felt compelled to turn off the screen and pick up a book. Read full review
75
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanMar 5, 2020
Indeed, this year’s Antiquarian Book Fair is celebrating its 60th anniversary at the Armory right now. And after seeing “The Booksellers,” you’ll be a lot more likely to think about how to get there, and maybe a little less inclined to place that next easy order on Amazon. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 27, 2020
There may be a change coming to the business of collectible books, which is a major thesis of Young’s lovely and lush if meandering, bookshelf browse of a movie. Is the sun setting on this esoteric obsession? Or is a big-city hipster-driven revival turning that around? Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGlenn WhippApr 16, 2020
D.W. Young’s lovely film introduces us to several sellers of rare books, New Yorkers, all of them smart and self-aware enough to know how they’re perceived. (There hasn’t been this much tweed in a movie since “Gosford Park.”) Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 16, 2020
Do not be misled by the comic charm of this film. It’s a ghost story, brooded over by the rustling wraiths of bookstores dead and gone. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 4, 2020
The Booksellers tends to be a bit too digressive at times, lapsing into many tangents that are never uninteresting but tend to cause it to lose focus. Nonetheless, the film provides an evocative portrait of a way of life that is hopefully not completely vanishing anytime soon. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 4, 2020
The Booksellers is a documentary for anyone who can still look at a book and see a dream, a magic teleportation device, an object that contains the world. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerApr 17, 2020
That's the joy and frustration of The Booksellers. The overall experience is like wandering through an antiquarian book store, picking up a volume, starting to flip through in a leisurely fashion, and then having your arm jostled, losing your place, and picking up another tome. Read full review
60
Little White LiesAnna BogutskayaAug 16, 2022
“The hunt” may be the driving force of the booksellers, but the film shows rare bookselling evolving into a form of curatorship – and that being the key of its evolution, survival and accessibility. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 25, 2020
The interest of this garrulous, convivial documentary creeps up on you by degrees. Read full review
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